AARP awards community grants to six NY organizations as part of record-breaking year for nationwide program

Communities across New York are working each and every day to become more livable for residents of all ages.

In support of that work, AARP is excited to announce the largest number of grantees and funds to-date through the Community Challenge grant program. These “quick action” grants are being distributed to 184 organizations across all 50 states, Washington D.C, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

The Community Challenge funds innovative projects that inspire change in areas such as transportation, public spaces, housing, smart cities, civic engagement, coronavirus response, and more.

AARP New York is incredibly proud to have 6 grantees right here in our state. Our goal is to support their efforts to create great places for people of all backgrounds, ages, and abilities and the coronavirus pandemic has only underscored the importance of this work.

Here in New York, these exciting and diverse projects were funded:

• 🎉 Underground Railroad Education Center, Albany, for Our Sow We Grow Project, an intergenerational program that will provide year-round access to fresh produce and gardening space.
• 🎉 Preservation Buffalo Niagara for an Adopt-a-Block program on the beloved Grant Street in Buffalo’s West Side.
• 🎉 Friends of Mosholu Parkland, in the Bronx, for an urban mural and garden next to the Mosholu train station.
• 🎉 New York University’s Grossman School of Medicine, New York City, to help make Chinatown more liveable by studying noise data collected as part of Project SHUSH (Sound Health in Underserved Neighborhoods).
• 🎉 United Way of the Dutchess-Orange Region, Poughkeepsie, for connecting both older adults and students, groups that are both facing social isolation during the pandemic.
• 🎉 LISC Buffalo for the "Discover Your Neighborhood" project, which will use creative placemaking, tactical urbanism, directional wayfinding, and walkability to reinvigorate communities during COVID-19 recovery.

The Community Challenge is part of AARP’s nationwide work on livable communities, which supports the efforts of neighborhoods, towns, cities, and counties across the country to become great places for all residents. We believe that communities should provide safe, walkable streets; affordable and accessible housing and transportation options; access to needed services; and opportunities for residents to participate in community life.

To learn more about the work being funded by the AARP Community Challenge both here in New York as well as across the nation, visit aarp.org/CommunityChallenge. You can also view an interactive map of all of the Community Challenge projects and AARP New York’s livable communities work at aarp.org/livable.